PMID: 15244526Jul 13, 2004Paper

Knowledge about cancer in West Bengal - a pilot survey

Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention : APJCP
Kausik Ray, Syamsundar Mandal

Abstract

A pilot survey was conducted based on 900 respondents of the population of West Bengal to assess their level of awareness regarding cancer with the aim of estimating associations between response variables (knowledge about cancer) and predictor variables (age, sex, level of education). The data of the pilot survey revealed that 98% of the respondents had heard of the disease 'Cancer'. Unfortunately only 35% of the respondents were aware of the 7-danger signals (i.e. the primary symptoms of cancer) as defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO). None of the respondents knew all 7-primary symptoms of cancer and the majority (about 88%) knew only one or two (mainly tumour lumps and ulcers). Only 44.67% were aware of the major risk factors (like smoking and tobacco chewing). The percentage of the respondents believing that most cancers are curable in early stages was 58%. Some of the respondents (21%) expressed the vague idea that cancer is a infectious disease which is creating a problem of isolation from the family/society with some unfortunate cancer patients. Over 11% of the respondents suggested that a cancer diagnosis should be kept secret from neighbours due to some social stigma like problems with daughters' marriage. On...Continue Reading

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